Charles Taylor

Charles Taylor (28 January 1948-) was President of Liberia from 2 August 1997 to 11 August 2003, succeeding Ruth Perry and preceding Moses Blah. In the 1989-96 First Liberian Civil War, he fought against the Samuel Doe regime after being trained as a guerrilla fighter in Libya, and he gained control over a large percentage of the country in the following years. As one of the most famous African warlords, his popularity suffered as a result of his brutality during the first civil war and the 1999-2003 Second Liberian Civil War, which forced him to resign.

Biography
Charles McArthur Taylor was born on 28 January 1948 in Arthington, Montserrado County, Liberia to an Americo-Liberian father and a Gola mother. Taylor studied at Bentley College in Massachussets, United States, and he supported Samuel Doe's 1980 coup against William R. Tolbert, Jr.. Appointed Director of the General Services Agency, he embezzled $1,000,000 and sent the funds to an American bank account, and on 21 May 1984 was arrested in Somerville, Massachusetts by two US Deputy Marshals after fleeing Liberia. In 1985, he sawed through the bar guarding the window in his dormitory and escaped, allegedly with CIA assistance; the CIA admitted that he started working for US intelligence in the 1980s without giving any details.

After his jailbreak, Taylor reached Libya and became Muammar Gaddafi's protege while being trained in guerrilla warfare, and he founded the National Patriotic Front of Liberia in Cote d'Ivoire while in exile. In December 1989, funded by Gaddafi, Taylor began an uprising against Doe, beginning the First Liberian Civil War. His commander Prince Johnson would later form his own rebel group and fight against Taylor, and the civil war degenerated into a series of conflicts between rival warlords. In 1996, he ran for president with the infamous slogan, "He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will vote for him." In an election deemed fair by the United Nations, he won 75% of the vote, having already taken over the radio station and threatened to resume the civil war if he lost.

While serving as President of Liberia, Taylor assisted the rebels in the Sierra Leonean Civil War next to Liberia, trading Liberian weapons in exchange for blood diamonds. In 1999, the Second Liberian Civil War broke out when a rebellion against Taylor began in northern Liberia, and in 2003 an Ivorian-backed rebel group appeared in the south. Vice-President Moses Blah took power as United States President George W. Bush demanded that Taylor step down from power, and he sought to go into exile in Nigeria on Olusegun Obasanjo's terms, which stipulated that he could not be involved in any more Liberian politics. However, he was arrested at the airport, and he was tried for war crimes. While being tried, Taylor converted to Judaism, having previously been a flamboyant Christian.